Portable wire tensioning and twisting machine



- 1,617,387 15 1927" A. J. GERRARD ET AL PORTABLE WIRE TENSIONING ANDTWISTING MACHI NE Filed June 14. 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 34am fhrw'nWay/at W'Wecd derrard, .6

1 1927. 1 1 617 387 Feb 5 I A. J. GERRARD ET AL PORTABLE WIRE TENSIONING AND TWI STING MACHINE I F'g'Lled June l4. 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 ab5 A. J. GERRARD ET AL PORTABLE WIRE TEN$IONING AND TWISTING MQGHINEFiled June 14, 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 09/2! lee Jfierrard @L w-w 11- 1500e 1 1927. F b 5 -A. J. GERRARD ET AL PORTABLE WIRE TENSIONING ANDTWISTING MACHINE Filed June 14. 1922 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 8 m mom/4 0Mftzrvin 175137}?! Mi i/6c Jfiwmra; ,6 i

Patented Feb- 15, 1927.

ALEC a. ennnnnn AND PARVIN WEIGHT, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS; SAID WRIGHTASSIGNOR T SAID GERRABD.

PORTABLEWIRE TENSIONING ANlD TWISTING MAC HIRE.

Application filed June 1 4:,

1922. Serial No. 568,301.

This invention relates to wire tying maworm gear 4 meshing with thetwisting pinchines of comparatively light weight, and capable ofmanipulating comparatively very heavy wire, and has for its object toprovide a machine of this character which will be simple inconstruction, certain in action, and less costly to manufacture thanthose heretofore proposed.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in thenovel' details of construction, and combinations of parts more fullyhereinafter disclosed and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the accompanying'drawings forming a part of. this specication, in which like numeralsdesignate like parts in all the views:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a machine made in accordance withthis inven tion;

Fig. 2 is a view of the knot tied by this. machine; I

Fig. 3 is a top plan view, partly in section, of the parts shown in Fig.1;

Fig. 4 is asectional detail view, taken on the line 4-4 of Fig. 1,looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 1, looking'inthe direction of the arrows;

Fig. 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Fig. 5;

-Fig. 7 is'a sectional detail view taken on the line 7-7 of Fig. 6,looking in the direction of the arrows;

Fig.8 is a perspective view of a portion of the operating lever shown inFig. 5;

Fig. 9 is a sectional view, taken on the line 99 of Fig. 1, looking inthe direction of the arrows;

Fig. 10 is a view of the parts shown in Fig. 9, after one bight of thewire has been cut;

Fig. 11 is a view taken on the line 11-11 of Fig. 1, looking in thedirection of the arrows;

Fig. 12 is a view of the parts shown in Fig. 11, after another bight ofthe wire has been cut; and

Fig. 13 is a view of a wireholdini post.

1 indicates any suitable framewor rovided with the vertically extendingp0 1011 2, in which is mounted the main operating shaft 3', provided atits lower end with the comes opposite ion 5, provided with the twistingslot 6 as best shown in Figure 5. The said framework '1 may be dividedinto two parts along the. line 7, and the front portion of the machineis provided with the extending lower lip 8 and the upper lip 9, forminga slot 10, between them, with which the slot 6 in the pinion 5 isadapted to register. The upper front portion 11 of the framework isprovided with a. pair of projecting lugs 12 in which is mounted theoperating shaft 13 having the eccentrically disposed pins 14 and 15adapted to actuate the cutters 16 and 17 respectively. Also mounted insaid framework adjacent the cutter 17 is the wire holding post 18 andadjacent the cutter 16 is mounted likewise the wire holding post 19. Atthe upper end of the extension 2 of said lever in the elevated positionshown in Figure 5, and its other or reduced end 34 passes through a holein a vertically movale stop pin 35 which passes down through the 'hub 26of the lever 27, and is adapted to enter-the various slots 37 in thedisk 22,

' the framework is securely mounted the supand to move said disk througha predeter- 0 mined angle for each complete rotation of the lever 27.

'Ihatis to say, when the lever 27 is rotated continuously in'onedirection, the stop pin will successively enter the various notches 37of the disk 22 and will turn said disk until the blank portion 38thereof said'stop pin 35, whereupon the pin can no longer enter saidnotches 37, and the rotation of the lever 27 will cease. When thishappens, the operator will know that the number of twists he wishes toput in the wire has been completed.

At the end of the frame, op os1te the post 18, is mounted the verticallyisposed operating shaft '50 provided at 1ts upper end I with theoperating lever 51, having'the'handie 52 and at its lower end with thewormgear 53 meshing with the worm 54: carrying the enlarged tension head55, provided with the slots 56 adapted to receive the wire, as willpresently appear. The shaft 50 is provided with the ratchet 57, and theframework is provided with the holding pawl 58,

as bests own in Figure 3.

The operation of this machine'is as follows: The flat surface or bottom65 of the machine is placed upon the top surface 66 of the box orpackage 67 to be wired, and the extreme end of the banding wire 61 isconveniently inserted in the notch 62 of the holding post 18, whereuponthe bight 6d of said wire is passed into the slot 10 of the frame, aswell as into the slot 6 of the twisting pinion 5, and out of said slot10 of the'frame through the holding post 19, whence itpasses around thebox or pack age 67 to be wired, and the wire 61 is then returned to theholding post 18, all as will be clear from Figures 1, 3 and 5.

The other bight 69 of said wire 61,.after again reaching the holdingpost 18 and passing through the slotted portion 68 thereof, see Figure13, passes into the slot 10 of the frame, and into the slot 6 of thetwisting inion 5, and out of said slot 10 through the olding post 19,whereupon said bight 69 passes into one of the slots 56 of thetensioning head 55, as best illustrated in Figures 1 and 3. a

The lever 51 is now rotated to turn the tensionin head 55, which windsup the bight 69 and puts a very considerable tension on the wire. Infact, so great is the tension that may be ut upon the wire 61, that itsslack is com Fetely taken up around the box and its big its cut into orsink into the edges of the box, so that the package is gripped veryfirmly indeed. Owing to the power thatmay be developed through the worm53 and worm gear 54, this tension may be made very great, and thereforea very la-r e sized wire 61 may be employed notwit standing the factthat the entire machine its-comparatively very light. While the bights'64 and 69 of the wire 61 are thus held under a heavy tension, thetwisting lever 27 may be operated. This lever carries the verticallymovable locking pin 35, as above described, which fits into a notch 70in the bottomv of the recess 21, with which the bracket 20 is provided,see Figure-7.

Said notch is inclined as illustrated, and is provided with the verticalshoulder 90 against which the pin 35 takes when the motion of the lever27 is reversed. It thus results that after the lever 27 has made apredetermined number of complete turns,

epending upon the number of notches 37 in the disk 22, the stop pin 35comes up against the-blank-surface 38 of the disk 22,

retreat and the twisting operation automatically stops. The number ofnotches 37 that are provided in the disk 22 depend upon the number ofcomplete twists that it is desired to place in the knot, and also uponthe ratio of the twisting gears.

It is very important that when the twist ing operation is completed,however, that the slots 6 and 10 should be in register, in order thatthe knot may be readil removed from the machine. To accomplis this, theparts are'so proportioned that a slight overtwist of the knotmay be had,so that when the lever 27 is stopped in the manner above described, theresiliency or recoil of the parts will turn the slot 6 backward andbring it into register with the slot 10. At the same time, this recoilof the bights 64 and 69 will serve to loosen the grip exerted by theslot 6 and will thus render the knotmore easy to be removed. In themeantime, the motion Of the lever 27 can never be reversed after acomplete rotation has been made, because the pin 35 would slide down theincline, of the notch 70 and come up against the shoulder 90 of saidnotch, and thus prevent-the. lever 27 from being turned back. Theprevention of the lever 27 from bein turned backwards prevents theoperator rom unintentionally untwisting the knot and thus jamming theparts in the machine. The twisting operation having been thus cornpletedand the pin 35 being brought up against the surface 38, as illustratedin Fig. 6, it is not possible to move the lever 27 in either direction..Therefore, to unlock the parts to start a new operation, it isnecessary to depress the lever 30 and raise the pin 35 a distance equalto the thickness of the disk 22, whereupon the lever 27 may be turnedand whereupon the depending end of the pin 35 will take'a ainst the lug23 on top of said disk 22, see igs. 5 and 6. A further turning of thelever 27 will now rotate the disk 22 with the said lever 27, and thuswill the blank space 38 be taken out of the path of the pin 35, and theparts he brought into eration. I I

In other words, it will now be clear that the disk 22 and the pin 35constitute a timing mechanism by which only a. predeterm ned number ofturns may be imparted to the bights 64 and 69, and by which one can notreverse the twisting operation, and untwist the knot and thus jam themachine.

In order to accommodate the lug 23, the hub 26 is cut away as at 91, andthe shoulders 92 are rounded off, as illustrated, in order to permit theready passage ofthe position, ready for anothe'r oplug. Below the mainhub portion'26 is the 1 said disk, except when the pin 35 is turningneva stop mechanism.

The two bights 64 and 69 of the wire having been thus twisted together,as illustrated in Figure 2, the cutting lever 75 is turned from theposition shown-in Figure ,9 to that shown in Fig. 10, whereupon theshort shaft 13 is rotated through an angle of 180. This rotation of theshaft 13 causes the pins 14 and 15 to depress respectively the vertical.reciprocating cutter bars 16 and 17 onathe sides of said posts 19 and 18that are nearest the twisting pinion 5. The cutter bar 17 is providedwith the cutting edge 76, which overlies the bight 64 of the wire andwith the notch 77 which overlies the bight 69 of the wire, so that whensaid cutter bar 17 is depressed only. the bight 64 of the wire will besevered, as will be plain from the position of the parts shown in Fig.10. In the same way, when the cutter bar 16 is depressed, its cuttingedge 80 which overlies the bight 69 of the wire will sever said bightonly, and its notch'81 will prevent the bight 64 from being severed.

The result is that the ends of the bights 64 and 69 are simultaneouslycut off very close up to the twisted portion of the wire, indeed. Infact the cut ends of the bights 64 and 69 are positioned at the veryterminationsof the twisted portions of the knot, thus making a, neat andefficient knot without any projecting ends which are liable to tearboxes or packages which are moved over said knot. It should bementioned, of:

course, that the slots 62 and 68, see Fig. 13, with which each of theposts 18 and 19 are provided, hold the two bights 64 and 69 from turningduring the twisting operation, and thus is the twisting pinion 5 enabledto twist the wire into the form shown in Fig. 2.

It is. an important feature of this invention that the power shaft 3extends up above the machine in a vertical direction instead ofhorizontal, for it enables the operating handle 28 to be located abovethe package being wired, instead of to one side thereof, which has avery decided advantage where the room is small and where the mostconvenient'place to apply the power is on the I top of the package,which often happens.

In addition to this, in dealing with very large and heavy wires, as isthe case here, and when employing a very light machine, as is also thecase here, the vertically inclined power shaft enables one to employworm gears to drive the twistin pinion, which has a decided advantage inthat the power delivered is very great, and these .gears are more orless self-locking, so that the operator does not have to be so careful.

as heretofore in. making his twisted knot. The ball bearings 98 at thebottom of the freely slide or move over the top of the package beingwired, and thus adjust more evenly the tension on the wire, and astillfurtherimportant feature resides in the. curved turned up portion 100,of this bottom framework which enables one to tip the machine forwardafter the knot is tied, and thus utilize the tension which is already inthe wire to disengage the wire from the machine. That is to say, alittle consideration will show that the two bights of wire 64 and 69after they have been twisted together, are necessarily under a verygreat tension, and therefore if given a chance to slide out of the slots6 and 10, they will tend to do so. Accordingly, by rounding the frame asat 100, a machine can be bodily tipped and this tension of the wireutilized to disengage the knot after it is tied. 7

It is obvious that those skilled in the art may vary the details ofconstruction as well as the arrangement of parts without departing fromthe spirit of the invention, and

hand-operated means for rotating said pm- M ion, a timing meanscomprising a slotted rotating disk actuated by said hand-operated meansfor automatically stopping the twisting motion of said pinion-rotatingmeans, and a pair of cutters for serving each bight of the wire afterthe twisting operation, substantially as described.

2. In a wire tyin machine, the combina tion of means for olding twobights of a wire, means for tensioning said bights, handoperated meansfor twisting said bights together, and automatic means comprising amovable pin and a slotted rotating disk actuated by said hand-operatedmeans for stopping the twisting operation after a prede- 1 terminedangular motion hasbeen imparted to said bights, substantially asdescribed.

3. In a wire tyin machine, the combination of means forolding two bightsof a wire, means for tensioning said bights, 1

rality of slots and a bla space, and a movable pin adapted to enter saidslots during the twisting operation and to take against said blank spaceat the end of said operation, substantially as described.

4. In a wire tying machine, the combination of a frame provided with apower shaftextending' upwardlytrom said frame and inclined to thevertical, a twisting gear operated by said shaft, a hand-operated meansconneeted to said shaft, means asso ciated with said hand-operatedmeanstor limiting the rotations of said shaft, and

means carried by said hand-operated means .shatt after its rotationshave been limited,

substantially as described,

6. In a wire tying machine, the combination of a frame, a power shaltextending upwardly from said frame, a lever for actuating said powershaft, apair of wire holding posts eac adapted to hold parallel disposedwires and having flat sides, a wire twisting means 0 erated from. saidpower shaft and located etween said posts, a pair of wire cuttersmovable up and down in contact with the flat sides of said posts nearestsaid wire twisting means and adapted to act compleaerate? to be twisted,a power shaft extending upwardly from the machine, a worm. on the lowerend of said shaft, a ball-bearing on which said shaft turns, a twistingmeans comprising a worm-gear meshing with said worm for twistingtogether said bights, a

tension head comprising a worm and gear adapted to strain the wirebefore the twisting action, and means for cutting both of said bights atthe end of the twisting operation, substantially as described.

8., ln a wire tying machine, the combination of a frame provided with asmooth bottom, a power shaft extending upwardly from said frame, a pairof slots inclined to said bottom, a turned-up edge intermediate saidbottom and'said slots, and an upwardly extending portion adapted tofacilitate the rocking or said frame on said turned up edge, a twistingpinion provided with a slot adapted to re ister with said first-namedslots, a power s aft disposed in said upwardly extending frame portionto operate said pinion, and means for automatically stopping the slotcarried by said pinion in reg ister with said frame slots at the end ofthe twistin operation, whereby said frame may be readily tipped when thetwisting action is completed and the knot disengaged from the machine,

In testimony whereof we afix our signatures ALEC J. GERRARD. v PARVINWRIGHT.

